Russian church official believes fight for God’s truth is going in Ukraine

Moscow, July 15, Interfax - Head of the Synodal Department for Church and Society Relations Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin believes that fight for the triumph of moral values is underway in Ukraine.

“There are various positions, there are two truths, or even more human private truths about developments in Ukraine, but for an Orthodox believer God’s truth should be higher, priority of moral values should be higher, priority of freedom for Orthodox peoples in modern world should be higher,” Father Vsevolod said on Tuesday at a session of the Russian Public Chamber.

He noted that the Church “doesn’t bless aggressive war or civil war,” and believers, clerics and hierarchs of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church “have different political positions.”

According to the priest, “theologically it is very difficult to deny that people, who feel their unity with certain community can stand up with weapons in their hands to protect this community and they can interpret this protection differently.”

“We must understand it clearly: there are different positions and there are grounds to protect these positions with weapons in hands,” he said.

Nevertheless, he is sure that “priority of God’s truth should be present in the Church independently of any political influence, any authorities, national or regional.”

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